


Thursday Night Thing

by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)



Series: Imagine Tony & Bucky [73]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Established Relationship, Fatherhood, For Science!, Insecure Tony, M/M, Sneaking Around, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 01:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6353278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaqen_hgar/pseuds/Finely%20Honed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <span class="small">Prompt: Imagine Tony and Bucky have been together/married in domestic bliss for years. And yet, Bucky can't help but notice the way that Tony is great with kids so he decides to approach the subject and they end up daddies. + Imagine Tony sneaking out of the tower and Bucky following him. After losing him a couple of time, Bucky find Tony playing science (or building awesome things with lego) with kids.</span>
</p><p>Keeping it quiet from the press was one thing, but hiding it from Bucky was something else. He gave himself a good fifteen minutes to feel upset, and a little sorry for himself before he began backtracking through his memories for clues as to what was going on.</p><p>It all came back to kids.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thursday Night Thing

Bucky was a trusting kind of guy, much to Clint’s surprise and disgust. “Suspicion is healthy,” Clint was known to say, usually after dropping out of a vent and scaring the crap out of someone. “And paranoia is better. I’m _helping_.”

“Telling me you think Tony’s steppin’ out on me—which he definitely isn’t—is helping how, exactly?”

Clint blinked at him, and shrugged. “Uh, because if the person I love is acting all sneaky and cheaty, and I was a trusting, loveblind sap, I’d want someone to tell me what’s up?”

“Tony’s faithful.”

“Sure, okay, fine. Admittedly, I can’t buy him cheating. But Tony’s still up to something,” Clint insisted. “This is the nineteenth time he’s snuck out like this.”

Which might be true, but this was the first time Bucky had thought of it as _sneaking_ out. Between his work and the Avengers, Tony was a busy guy. Breaking him of the habit of almost obsessively apologizing for this had taken Bucky about a year, actually. Even after that, Tony had been so worried about neglecting Bucky, or making him feel like he came second to work, that he’d started cutting back on his sleep in order to have more time to spend with him, which had eventually ended with Tony falling asleep _on_ a pizza one night.

So, Bucky had sat him down, and set Tony straight, which was also the same night Tony finally accepted that Bucky really meant it when he said, “I love you _the way you are_ , Tony.”

Still, he was pretty sure it wasn’t until they were saying, “I do,” in front of all their friends that Tony believed Bucky was sticking around, and that he wasn’t going to accidentally do, or say, or forget something, and suddenly find himself alone again. Which was good, because it was the truth.

As far as Bucky was concerned, Tony had never left him wanting for anything. He was always there when Bucky needed to talk, and happy to sit in silence when he couldn’t. They laughed together, played together, and sometimes cried together. Tony never complained when Bucky went all mother hen on him, or got all overprotective when someone messed with Tony. They even got to fight aliens together, and blow things up as a couple! As far as marriages went, it was better than anything Bucky could have dreamed up for himself.

So, when Tony had suddenly started going out on Thursday nights without any explanation, it hadn’t set off alarm bells. Bucky assumed Tony was taking a little time for himself, which was healthy. Normally, the closest Tony got to the concept of “me time” was a marathon work session, which wasn’t quite the same. Tony came back home a couple hours later, usually in a good mood, and that was that.

“What’s sneaky about saying ‘see you soon,’ kissing me goodbye, and leaving the room?”

“How about this: Tony’s calendar says ‘R&D’ but he always leaves the building. He changes after saying bye to you, then takes one of the less flashy cars, but ditches it in a garage and walks a few blocks to the subway.”

For a full minute, Bucky could only stare at Clint and blink, some tiny, uncomfortable feeling fluttering inside of his chest. “You followed him?”

Clint shrugged. “You’re my friend. He’s acting shady. I only followed to the subway.”

“Thank you for caring. Now, stop following my husband,” Bucky asked as sweetly as possible, “or I’m gonna sic Natasha on you.”

Clint held his hands up in surrender, planted a kiss on Bucky’s forehead, and ran away, which meant he had plenty of time to think before Tony came back home.

“Have a good time?”

Tony plopped down on the couch next to Bucky. “Yup,” he answered, yawning as he wriggled around until he had his head on Bucky’s shoulder. “How ‘bout you? Relaxing evening?”

“Mmm hmm.”

Bucky wrapped his arms around Tony, and smiled into his hair. Tony definitely wasn’t cheating on him—it’d take photographs, video, and Tony confessing before he’d even  _consider_ that as a possibility—but Clint was right. Something must be going on, and he could admit he was curious.

“Quiet, mostly. You?”

Tony made a soft, amused sound. “Not so much with the quiet, but relaxing.” He then began nibbling at Bucky’s neck, which led to other things, so that by the time he was drifting off to sleep, Bucky realized he was still no closer to figuring out what it was Tony got up to on Thursday nights.

+

Once Bucky began paying attention, it was obvious Tony was being as vague as possible about his Thursday night outings. The more Bucky probed and prodded without coming right out and asking what it was Tony was doing, the more pained Tony’s expression grew, so that by the time the next Thursday night rolled around, Tony didn’t leave the Tower at his normal time.

“Isn’t it Thursday?” Bucky asked, looking at his watch.

Tony shrugged. “You mentioned that new Thai place the other day,” he said, trying and failing to act nonchalant. “I thought maybe we could go have dinner together.”

When he smiled hopefully at Bucky, there was far too much of the old Tony Stark in his eyes. That was the sort of look that led to falling asleep in a pizza. Bucky felt like someone suckerpunched him in the stomach.

“I’m using my veto. Go out and have fun,” he ordered, pointing at the door. “We can always go tomorrow.”

“No, it’s fine,” Tony insisted. “I was thinking I probably shouldn’t make that a regular thing anymore, anyway, so…” The words trailed off, and he shrugged again. “If you don’t feel like dinner, we could always watch a movie, or—”

Bucky kissed him, then kissed him again for good measure. “I _want_ you to go do your thing. You come home relaxed, and happy, and that makes _me_ happy, because I love you.” He pulled Tony up off of the couch, and marched him to the door. “Please go enjoy yourself.”

Tony still looked doubtful, hemmed and hawed a bit more, but eventually left. When he came home, the normally relaxed, smiling Thursday Night Tony was replaced with one bracing for impact, as if expecting Bucky to have changed his mind while he was gone.

After that little incident, Bucky was careful not to do or say anything that could be misconstrued as displeasure over Tony going out, so that the next time Thursday rolled around, Tony only hesitated a little before leaving.

And even though he felt guilty as hell for doing it, Bucky waited, and then followed him.

+

It was strange seeing Tony ride the train, mostly because no one seemed to notice him. He wasn’t in a flashy suit, which helped. In fact, he was wearing one of Bucky’s jackets, a beat up pair of sneakers, jeans, and a blue baseball cap modeled to look like Cap’s old cowl, complete with little wings on the side and everything. A well-used backpack was slung over one shoulder, and his nose was all but shoved in an actual _paper_ book. He read right up until getting off at his stop, never noticing that he was being followed.

Bucky hung back, watching, wondering what the hell they were doing in Queens. Tony did look around furtively a few times along the way, but before too long Bucky found himself standing outside of the New York Hall of Science, feeling incredibly nervous for reasons he couldn’t explain. He spent ten minutes arguing with himself before going in, because he knew nothing nefarious was going on. Tony was doing something at the New York Hall of Science, which was very Tony, and now that he knew, he should go back home. Yes, it was odd that Tony was so uncomfortable talking about whatever it was he was doing there on Thursday nights, but…

Feeling incredibly disappointed in himself, Bucky headed in, then set to tracking Tony down. A sign was posted stating that The Design Lab featured a special members only event on Thursday evenings, so Bucky figured that was a good place to start. He wasn’t sure what to expect as he snuck around to find a vantage point on the level above, but there Tony was, now wearing a labcoat, surrounded by kids.

“Okay, my munchkins, have we decided what’s on the menu for tonight?”

There were shouts of ‘castles’ and ‘robots’ and a lot of other stuff that he couldn’t pick out. Bucky’s eyes widened at the cacophony, but Tony just grinned, and started pointing, shouting names, and calling out team leaders, and before he knew what was happening, there were two groups of kids working together to build… things. He wasn’t sure what those things were, exactly, but _they_ seemed to.

Down on the floor, Tony bounced from group to group, answering questions and providing guidance in a way that forced the kids to think through the problems on their own. A boy tottered along behind him, also wearing a little labcoat, an almost comically large pair of glasses periodically sliding down his nose. It was adorable watching him mirror Tony’s dramatic poses and hand gestures as they supervised the groups.

The excited chatter of children made it difficult to pick any one conversation out, but as he watched, he got the gist of it. Each group of kids had a little engineering project they were working on, and it was kind of fascinating to see the way they were all collaborating with each other, and using the materials made available within the space to more or less manifest their imaginations.

All of that was strange enough, but the strangest thing of all was Tony himself. Not only did he look at home in the sea of children, he looked _ecstatic_. So did the kids, for that matter. They beamed with pride when he complimented their creations, even seemed to like it when he challenged their approach.

The entire time, Tony’s lab partner followed along, so that he was constantly stopping to crouch down to the kid’s level so the little guy could ask him questions, or just talk to him. At one point, Tony clapped, whirled his fingers in the air, and pointed at the boy, saying, “Good question. Katie, Peter wants to know what your plans are in the event of an earthquake. Do we think the structure will hold up?”

There were some yays and nays, and then what felt like a very adult discourse on how to prevent the building from becoming a death trap. Bucky watched the parents nervously, expecting one of them to pitch a fit, but they all hung back and continued watching, talking quietly to each other as the kids went to work solving the problem on their own. And yes, their solution was to combine Jackson’s robot project with Katie’s Tower of Awesome, but it was still pretty great to watch it unfold.

Bucky was so absorbed in it all that he didn’t notice the severe looking woman hovering nearby until she cleared her throat.

“This section is closed, sir. You’ll have to leave.”

“Sorry,” he said, trying on his best smile. “I’m actually a friend of Tony’s, and—”

“Then I’m sure you won’t mind leaving,” she interrupted. “I’d hate to have security escort out one of his friends.”

Down below, the children were cheering, Tony was laughing, and Bucky was trying to figure out why this was surrounded with such secrecy.

“Absolutely,” he agreed, following her as she not so subtly escorted him out of the area.

Bucky had time to think while he waited outside, and it didn’t take much imagination to realize how quickly the press could put an end to the outing for Tony. There would be people assigning all sorts of nefarious purposes to Tony’s being there, just because they could, and he doubted the parents he’d seen would appreciate being part of a tabloid feeding frenzy each Thursday night.

Keeping it quiet from the press was one thing, but hiding it from Bucky was something else. He gave himself a good fifteen minutes to feel upset, and a little sorry for himself before he began backtracking through his memories for clues as to what was going on.

It all came back to kids.

They’d never actually _talked_ about having kids. Knowing what he did about Tony’s relationship with Howard, Bucky had just assumed Tony wasn’t interested in being a dad, and it wasn’t like one of them was going to get pregnant. Besides, Tony was a busy guy, and the superhero gig was dangerous.

But that was the thing with loving Tony Stark. He didn’t come right out and talk about things when they were a little too close to his big, soft heart. That was mostly Howard’s fault, but Bucky suspected some of it was just the way Tony was wired, and that it would have been the case even if he’d had the happiest of childhoods.

So, looking back, he didn’t have too much trouble picking out the seemingly innocent questions and conversations they’d had over the years, all of which had likely led Tony to the incorrect conclusion that Bucky wasn’t interested in having kids.

Eventually, the children and their parents filed out of the New York Hall of Science, Tony’s little assistant hanging behind, one tiny fist clutching at Tony’s labcoat.

“Okay, buddy,” Tony said, crouching back down and pushing the boy’s glasses back up his nose for him. “Time for you to get to bed, I think.”

Watching the lower lip stick out as the kid struggled not to cry while hugging Tony goodbye was hard enough without seeing the look of longing on Tony’s face as he watched Peter go off with a frail looking woman.

Unable to help himself, Bucky stepped out of the shadows, and cleared his throat. “Hi.”

Tony jumped, his eyes going wide, face flushing as he realized what had happened. Bucky watched him struggle to compose himself before he just slumped in defeat. “You followed me?” he asked weakly, and Bucky felt like even more of an asshole.

“Not because I don’t trust you,” he swore, stepping closer, “and yes, I realize how lame that sounds, but… yeah. I suck. I’m sorry, Tony.”

“No, it’s fine,” he swore, staring down at his shoes. “I should have just told you what I was doing, anyway.”

Bucky sighed, and curled his hand around the back of Tony’s neck. “You _could_ have,” Bucky agreed, “but it isn’t like you did anything wrong, Tony. I could have just as easily come right out and asked you what you were doing, rather than following you.”

“Well, now you know,” Tony said after a moment, and at least there was a bit of relief in his eyes when he looked up. There was trepidation there, as well, as if he fully expected Bucky to rain all over his parade.

Bucky smiled down at him, and Tony relaxed a bit more. “Yeah. I got kicked out, but from what I saw it looked like you and the kids were having a blast.”

“They’re super smart,” Tony gushed. “Although, I think Katie might secretly be going to Evil Mastermind classes on the side. When the Avengers eventually battle her sentient, mobile building, we’re all doomed.”

They laughed together, and Tony allowed himself to be pulled into a hug before he jabbed Bucky in the side. “You’re going to make me talk about this, aren’t you?”

“Only because I love you, and want you to be happy,” Bucky swore.

Tony nodded, shrugged his shoulders again, and then groaned theatrically. “Fine. Let’s do it. What do you want to know?”

Bucky studied him for a moment, his heart feeling full to bursting. Tony had that effect on him, but there had been something about seeing him and the little boy together that Bucky couldn’t seem to shake. The careful, considerate way he always got down to Peter’s level, and seemed to take him so seriously, and their teary-eyed departure.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine making some adjustments in order to share their life with a kid. Hell, maybe more than one. All the little leading questions Tony had asked over the years had been hypotheticals, or observations about other couples, not anything he’d actually considered as a possibility for them.

Tony stood there waiting, and Bucky couldn’t help himself, just blurted, “You’d be a _great_ dad.” As Bucky watched, Tony’s eyes went wide, and round as saucers, and before he could open his mouth and started pouring out all the reasons he’d come up with for why he’d be a bad father, Bucky added, “and so would I. Both of us, together. We’d raise the hell out of some kids, don’t you think?”

Tony burst out laughing, half falling into Bucky’s arms as he did it, not protesting in the least when he found himself pulled into a hug. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” he asked, mouth up close to Bucky’s ear, shaking with laughter, and nerves.

“I’m _very_ serious, Tony.”

“But, I thought—”

Bucky kissed him quiet, then pulled back enough to maintain eye contact, thumbs stroking over Tony’s cheeks. “ _Other_ people’s kids are annoying. And yeah, it’s scary, and not something I ever thought I wanted, but I also never thought I’d have someone like you in my life, either. If it was just me? Different story. But _us_? Tony, I _love_ the idea of being a dad, as long as it’s with you.”

This time it was Tony doing the kissing, until they pulled apart again so he could laugh, and wipe at his tears. “Sorry, shit. I just… Not the reaction I was expecting. Yeah. Wow. You’re seriously serious. You think I’d be okay? Howard—”

“Howard just showed you a good example of what not to do,” Bucky interrupted, hooking his arm around Tony’s shoulders. “Watching you with those kids was a gift, Tony. You’ll be way better than okay. You’re going to be the best dad ever.”

“You can share the title with me.”

They started walking for the train, Bucky smiling hard enough that his face hurt. There was still plenty to discuss, and they’d likely have a freak out or two along the way, but it already felt like the decision had officially been made. The excitement and surreality reminded him a bit of when Tony had proposed to him, and it was tempting to start shouting, “We’re gonna start a family!” to all of Queens.

Instead, they took their time as they headed for the train station, Tony tucked under Bucky’s arm.

“So, tell me all about that little guy, Peter.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ooops, I haven't updated over here in ages!!! XD


End file.
